Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 3 (2017)

The first two seasons of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt were a great way to spend a couple of weeks. I loved them because of their relentless quirkiness and optimism, and I was so looking forward to the third season. Regardless of whether it would make the show better or not, I knew I would wildly enjoy the time I would spend with these characters and their comedy.

Once again, the show swept me off my feet.

The third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the best season from the show yet (by a slim margin, mind you), and I think it's mostly due to how it doesn't let up on the gas at all throughout its thirteen episodes. There's so many things that contribute to this, from the brand of comedy that Tina Fey pushes so hard on all her shows to the cast's chemistry and performances to the simplicity and innocence of Kimmy's character. (Some of these things could be copied and pasted from my review of the first two seasons, so I'm just going to touch on what changed to spare you. You're welcome.)

Let's start with the style. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is through and through a Tina Fey-helmed show. If you're not familiar with her style, this might not be the best introduction to it because of how crazy everything in the show is, so I'd recommend watching a bit of her other show 30 Rock (which, by the way, I also love). If you are, you know exactly what you're getting: hilarious smash cuts and flashbacks with more dedication than nearly any other show, ridiculous surreal comedy that makes fun of the character's situations, and all the quirkiness you could handle...and then some. It is so unique in its satirizing of itself that I find myself longing for more shows like it. It just suits my taste so well. Kimmy does a good job of making light of itself, but there's some moments where it also makes fun of its actors as well. Case in point: Hamilton star Daveed Diggs has a few episodes where he plays a friend of Kimmy's, and he raps in his philosophy class for a project...only he raps absolutely terribly. I was so ready to see his skill on display, and instead the show's writers went the exact opposite direction. The shock value was so great that I just about died of laughter.

Speaking of Diggs, all of the show's cast, both main and recurring, are incredibly solid. Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Jane Krakowski, and Carol Kane excel once again with their work as the main cast and all help contribute to the series's quirky, uplifting tone. Diggs does well with his supporting role, as do many other guests throughout the course of the season, especially Peter Riegert, David Cross and Billy Magnussen. For the most part, this is half due to the excellent ability of all involved to be very naturally funny and half due to the tremendous amount of character development from the writers. These side characters are established really well by the writing, which allows a lot of the humor to be centered around their characters rather than exclusively the situations they are in.

Besides that, nothing's really changed from the first two seasons, and that's a good thing. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is better than it ever was, and it continues to solidify itself as one of the most unique and funny sitcoms out there today. Because it focuses on the characters a lot, the comedy and episode plots make a lot more of an impact than typical fare, making it one of the things I'll be looking forward to watching again next spring.

My recommendation: If you like it already, you'll love this season. 

My grade for the season: 86

My grade for the whole show: 82

Where to find it: Netflix